Ambulances to start roving Cebu City’s streets on July 15

Cebu City-owned ambulances will soon be roving designated areas in the city as a way to easily respond to emergency cases. |CDN file photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Starting Monday, July 15, Cebu City residents will see ambulances roaming around the city streets waiting to respond to any medical emergency.

Councilor David Tumulak, the chairman of the committee on disaster risk reduction and management, said at least 10 ambulances would be roaming around their specific areas of responsibility.

This has been a practice back in 2014 in the term of then Mayor now Vice Mayor Michael Rama, to keep the ambulances moving and active throughout the day instead of simply parking somewhere near the barangay halls.

“This will be operational 24/7 and placed in 10 strategic areas for easy deployment in the case of an emergency,” said Tumulak.

Among the areas where they will be deployed will be the downtown area where accidents are prone to happen because of the constant moving traffic and pedestrians.

Another four ambulances will also be deployed in the mountain barangays to respond to emergencies in the area especially with the constant rains causing the softening of the soil making paths dangerous.

Along with the ambulances, 104 medics will be manning the ambulance in its 24 hours operations ensuring the public of immediate medical care in times of emergencies.

Tumulak said he believed the presence of ambulances around the city would be an essential way to keep the public safe.

The constantly moving ambulances will be able to respond faster to any accident because the nearest ambulance to the incident can easily respond.

The councilor said that in status quo, it would more than 10 minutes for an ambulance to arrive to an emergency scene.

He said a time that could mean life and death to an individual in need of medical attention.

“The city is very concerned with the lives of the people. The priority is to save lives and make the response faster,” said Tumulak.

He said an additional 30 medical personnel would join the team from the barangays in the next few weeks to help man the ambulance.

He said that he was hoping that the city government could allocate more budget to purchase more ambulances in the future so more areas could be covered./dbs